Rite Of Summer Music Festival Kicks Off This Weekend With Grand Band!

Pam Goldberg and Blair McMillen will present the 11th Season of the Rite of Summer Music Festival, taking place Summer 2022 on Governors Island, New York City. Rite of Summer will present four free outdoor concerts from May through September.

In a locale The New York Times has called a "Playground for the Arts," the aim of the Festival is simple: to present the highest quality live performances, and to bring free contemporary classical music to as many people as possible in a relaxed, fun, outdoor setting.

This season's spectacular line-up kicks off on Saturday, May 21st with piano sextet Grand Band performing New York Keys featuring works of four New York composers, including a world premiere by Grand Band member Erika Dohi, and, for his 85th birthday celebration, an original arrangement of Philip Glass's Part 9 from his groundbreaking Music in Twelve Parts, Julius Eastman's Gay Guerilla and Paul Kerekes's bloom.

Next up on Saturday, July 16th, violinist Curtis Stewart performs of Love: a follow up to his GRAMMY Nominated album OF POWER - a set of works to cherish all the time we live through. of Love features music of Alice Coltrane, Johannes Brahms, Greek Folk Tunes, Duke Ellington, Henry Purcell, The Killers: Brightside, Bill Withers, JS Bach, Kendrick Lamar / Thundercat, and Curtis Stewart.

On Saturday, August 20th ROS presents The Westerlies performing Brass Roots: American Folk Traditions, featuring music of Woody Guthrie, the Golden Gate Quartet, John Prine, and Judee Sill heard anew, alongside works by composers whose use of folk melodies transcended their time, from the sophistication of Duke Ellington to the bold imagination of Charles Ives.

Season 11 closes with Sybarite5 on Saturday, September 10th performing The Revolve Tour. Centered around Andy Akiho's epic work Revolve from Sybarite5's recent album that debuted at #1 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Charts, The Revolve Tour explores how new perspectives can change perceptions. New works written exclusively for the group by Kamala Sankaram, Jackson Greenberg, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Pedro Giraudo, Jessica Meyer, Shawn Conley, and Jobina Tinnemans will be featured alongside music of the Punch Brothers, Komitas, Radiohead, and Andy Akiho's Revolve, which brilliantly captures the upbeat excitement and motion of his New York neighborhood in music.

Rite of Summer shows will be presented twice the same day, at 1pm and 3pm, for each respective date at Nolan Park. Audiences should feel free to walk by, stop and listen, lay down a picnic blanket and relax, eat lunch, mingle, and take in these engaging live performances.

Past seasons have presented such artists as: The Knights; Alarm Will Sound; Pamela Z; JACK Quartet; Dawn of Midi; Imani Winds; Bang on a Can All-Stars; ETHEL; Ensemble Connect; Pam Goldberg; Miranda Cuckson; Blair McMillen; Nurit Pacht; Esther Noh; Caitlin Sullivan; Allison Charney; John Brancy; Peter Dugan; Kara Sainz; Theo Bleckmann; The Parker Quartet; New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers with ETHEL and Iktus Percussion; Jeffrey Zeigler; Ian David Rosenbaum; Todd Reynolds; Jonny Rogers; Jordan Tice; Mathias Kunzli; TIGUE; Grand Band; Talujon Percussion; Phyllis Chen; Anthony De Mare; Fireworks Ensemble; Classical Jam; House of Waters; Sirius Quartet; Sandbox Percussion; Contemporaneous; Don Byron New Gospel Quintet; Iktus Percussion; Brooklyn Raga Massive; DITHER; Collaborative Arts Ensemble; Ljova and the Kontraband; a Jed Distler-led extravaganza of Terry Riley's In C featuring over 40 of New York's top freelance musicians including members of American Modern Ensemble, Newspeak, Momenta Quartet, and more; John Luther Adams's Inuksuit with over 60 percussionists from Mantra Percussion, Ensemble et al, Loop 2.4.3, Palladium Percussion, Iktus Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Contemporaneous, and students from Stony Brook, Queens College, NYU, and Mantra Youth Percussion.

Governors Island is open daily year-round from 7am to 6pm. Ferries operated by the Trust for Governors Island run daily from the Battery Maritime Building, located at 10 South Street in Lower Manhattan. Trust-operated ferries are always free for kids 12 and under, seniors 65 and up, IDNYC holders, residents of NYCHA housing, current and former military servicemembers, Governors Island members, and for everyone on weekends before noon. Round-trip ferry tickets for adults are $3 at all other times. Visit govisland.org/ferry for schedules and ticket information. NYC Ferry provides additional daily service to Governors Island-for NYC Ferry schedules, pricing and more information, visit ferry.nyc.

For more information, visit www.riteofsummer.com.

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